Horse from a Different Sea
by welsh-nikki
Summary: After the birth of Teyla's son Torren, John has regrets that he never had children. But this is the Pegasus galaxy, where strange things are pretty much normal. John/Rodney friendship with a twist, that should probably be considered AU


_After the birth of Teyla's son Torren, John has regrets that he never had children. But this is the Pegasus galaxy, where strange things are pretty much normal …………_

_A humorous John/Rodney fanfic with a twist in the tale, that should probably be considered AU._

___With thanks to Kassandra and Jayne, for giving up their time to proof read this, and especially to Kassandra for lending me her muse. _____

_Also thanks to Trish, who put the idea of sea horses into my head._

**Warnings and disclaimers:**

_None of my stories are written for financial profit. The characters from Stargate Atlantis are the property of MGM, I am just borrowing them._

_This story contains spoilers for Stargate season 5 episode 1 only, as I have not seen the others yet. I have cautiously classified it T due to the references to a character being pregnant._

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At the time, it had seemed like a pretty routine mission. Teyla was not ready to return to work after the birth of her son, Torren John, so Col. John Sheppard had checked the list of new recruits from the Deadalus and picked out Lt. Angela Kelly as a stand in. This would be her first off world mission in the Pegasus Galaxy, so John had chosen a simple mission, investigating the ruins of an Ancient city. Rodney had found plenty to interest him, and John had assigned Ronon to keep an eye on the scientist, and make sure he did not wander off.

Lt. Kelly had a PhD in geology, and a keen interest in archaeology and ancient languages. John had managed to convince himself that he had chosen her for her qualifications, and not for her slim figure, bright green eyes and curly red hair. She was as interested in exploring as Rodney, and John did not mind following her down the dusty corridors. They had been looking for about an hour when Angela found the remains of an ancient lab. There was a computer on a table that looked like it might still work. Angela attempted to start it, but eventually gave up in disgust, and suggested they call for Rodney. She started examining the other artifacts in the room. A small cube inscribed with ancient writing caught her interest."Have you ever seen anything like this before, Sir?" she asked."No I don't think so. Can you read the symbols?" he replied."Sorry, my Ancient isn't that good yet. Here, maybe it will make more sense to you?"As John took the cube from the girl, it activated, the writing lighting up with a blue glow. With no warning, the cube became unbearably hot and John dropped it, grasping his hand against his chest."Ow, that hurt!"Angela looked stunned as the artifact fell to the floor, unbroken."What was that?" she asked."No idea, I must have activated it with my gene." John replied through gritted teeth.Angela reached out, tentatively touching the cube and found it cool again. She picked it up and put it in her pack for analysis.

John recalled the rest of his team and they returned to Atlantis, so that Dr Keller could attend to his burns. He was concerned that no one else should touch the cube, so he suggested that Lt Kelly take photographs of the symbols for the Ancient Language team to study. The cube itself was placed out of reach, on the highest shelf in one of the medical labs. Three weeks later Angela discovered that she was pregnant, and asked permission to return to earth. Shortly afterwards, John received news that she was going to retire from the military, and marry the father, a young scientist working for the SGC.

John woke up feeling nauseous. It must have been the meal they had on P60-33X the previous day. Rodney and Ronon had seemed to enjoy it, but everything had tasted slightly stale to John. Teyla had obviously agreed with him, as he had seen her sniffing the food suspiciously. He started to get out of bed, but as soon as he was sitting upright he had an urge to throw up. He rushed to the bathroom with a hand over his mouth, and was relieved when he reached the toilet in time. John hated going to the infirmary, but he realized that he was going to have to tell Dr Keller. He wondered if the rest of his team were feeling the same way as him.

Surprisingly, John was the only one from the gate team who felt sick. The nausea seemed to come and go, and made it difficult to eat meals. Dr Keller ran a number of tests, but was unable to detect what was making John ill. He did not appear to have caught any known virus or bacteria. After a few days, John was starting to feel both annoyed and frightened.

Teyla and Ronon were starting to get worried that John was not eating, so one evening they hijacked him and dragged him to the commissary. Rodney was already there, with a big pile of stew and vegetables piled up on his plate. The smell made John's stomach feel slightly queasy. "John, you should try to eat something, to build up your strength" Teyla suggested."I wish I could, but everything just makes me feel ill." John lamented."You know, there is a tea my people make that might help." suggested Teyla. "I drank it when I was pregnant with Torren, to help with the morning sickness.""That's a crazy idea," said Rodney, his mouth still full of stew. "He hasn't got morning sickness.""Right now I've got morning, afternoon and evening sickness, so if there is even a chance the tea will help I'm willing to give it a shot." John replied.

John followed Teyla back to the new larger quarters she had been assigned. Kanaan was holding a sleeping Torren on his lap, a gentle smile on his face. John experienced a stab of envy. It was not something he ever talked about, but for a long time he had wanted a child of his own. Unfortunately his marriage had failed, because of his job and all the secrets he had to keep. Since then, the fear of getting hurt caused him to raise his barriers to anyone who tried to get too close. He thought he had come to terms with being on his own, but Teyla's new family reminded him of everything he didn't have. Teyla found the box of tea and passed it to John, who accepted it gratefully. He said a small prayer to any gods that might be listening that this would work, and went back to his room to make the tea.

John was angry with Teyla, and he didn't understand why. The Athosian tea seemed to have stopped his nausea but lately he seemed to be prone to mood swings, happy one moment, depressed the next, and quick to get angry for very little reason. This time it was because Teyla had asked Rodney to baby sit Torren."I don't understand why you asked Rodney of all people, it's not like he knows a lot about kids." John moaned, like a petulant child."I explained this to you before John. " Teyla replied, trying to sound patient. "Rodney was the person who delivered Torren into this world, and under Athosian customs he has certain rights, and responsibilities to my child. Rodney has watched Torren many times and he never came to harm.""You could have asked me you know, I wouldn't have minded." "John, are you jealous?" Teyla asked, a note of surprise in her voice. "I suppose that you could watch Torren if you wish, but take Rodney with you?"

It was lunchtime, and John had persuaded Rodney to stop for an early lunch break. For some reason he always seemed to be hungry these days. The scientist had been reluctant at first to leave his latest project, but John had lured him with the promise of chocolate muffins. They were sitting together, trays piled high with the Atlantian kitchen's best imitation of burgers and fries, and as many of the chocolate muffins as Rodney could scare the serving staff into giving them. John reached out for a particularly large French fry on Rodney's plate. Without hesitation Rodney swatted away John's hand."Hey, leave my food alone flyboy, you've got plenty on your own plate"John grinned at Rodney, unrepentant,"Oh, but they always taste so much better from your plate.""Hmph, its no wonder you're putting on weight" Rodney snarked, "Well you can keep your greedy paws off my cakes, you got it?""Hey, what do you mean, putting on weight?" John asked."Oh come on, don't tell me you hadn't noticed?" Rodney spat back.

Come to think of it, John realized his BDU's had been a lot tighter recently. Maybe he needed to work out a little more, and watch what he ate?

John decided to put himself on a diet, and set himself a grueling exercise schedule. Teyla was glad to start their stick fighting sessions again, as she wanted to get back into shape after the birth of Torren. Ronon accepted without comment the suggestion that they should increase the duration of their morning run. Rodney moaned about the self defense lessons John suggested he should take, but agreed after John bribed him with good quality coffee and power bars. For the next couple of weeks, John was tired and hungry, and a couple of times he even felt a little light headed, but if anything he seemed to be putting on more weight than before. It didn't make sense, as he had always been naturally slim. He thought about going back to Dr Keller, in case this was connected to the mysterious sickness, but he really did not feel like being poked and prodded right now. He kept promising himself that he'd go tomorrow.

One morning, John was in the gym, training with Rodney, when suddenly he had a strange feeling in his stomach, like something inside was kicking him."Ow!" He doubled up, knees bent and leaning over so his hands were on his thighs. It wasn't that the pain was bad, but there was something wrong about the feeling, like there was a creature moving around inside him.Rodney paused in the middle of the move he had been practicing, a confused look on his face."What the heck, I never even came near you John." "Not you. Stomach. Hurts. Infirmary. Now." The last he said with a slightly hysterical note in his voice.Rodney knew John was the sort of person who tended to make light of any injury, so for his friend to actually ask for a doctor was frightening. He gently placed an arm around John, helping him to stand, and did his best to assist him to walk in the direction of the infirmary. He used his headset radio to warn Dr Keller they were on their way.

Dr Keller was concerned by John's symptoms, so she decided to run a scan. When she saw the results, her first thought was that there must be something wrong with the machine, because there on the scan was the image of a perfectly formed human baby. She considered that it might be some sort of alien parasite, but the Ancient diagnostics all agreed that this baby was human. Her head was full of questions such as how could this have happened, and how was she going to deliver the baby? She forced her mind to focus on a more immediate problem, how was she going to explain this to John, without him freaking out? There were a few sedatives she could use on a pregnant woman, but she was reluctant to use any drugs on John, as she had no idea what effect it would have.

When John heard the news, he knew he should be horrified, but he was overwhelmed by a sense of exhilaration. He was going to have a baby. Sure, there were going to be all sorts of problems, but none of them mattered because at last he would have a child of his own. Rodney saw the silly grin on his face, and looked at him with a confused mix of emotions."You actually want to keep this kid?" Rodney asked."You're kidding, of course I do, I never wanted anything more in my life." John replied emphatically."You're crazy John, it must be the pregnancy hormones talking. How on earth are you going to raise a kid on your own?""Teyla was going to do it, before we found Kanaan. And I'm not on my own, I've got my team to help me.""Oh no, your not going to rope me into any more babysitting, its not as if I'm not already spending all my free time babysitting Torren." but as Rodney said it, a soft look crossed his face that belied the harsh words."Come on Rodney, you know you love that kid." John said, grinning at his friend."OK, but don't you dare tell anyone, I do have a reputation to uphold." John laughed at the serious look on Rodney's face, until he felt the baby kick again. His expression changed to an expression of awe.

Dr Keller wanted to find out how John could be pregnant, so she started by using the scan to estimate how old the baby was. She realized that her guess might not be very accurate, as there was nothing normal about this pregnancy. She looked through John's medical records, until she came to the incident where he had burned his hand. Jennifer remembered that John had activated some sort of ancient device, and she wondered if this could have been connected to the pregnancy. She decided to run a database search for Ancient fertility devices, and cross referenced it against male pregnancy. She was not particularly surprised when the search found a device similar to the one that John had touched. According to the notes, there had to be a second person touching the device, to contribute their DNA, and it was more likely to succeed if this person was already pregnant. Jennifer turned back to the mission report. There had been three other people on that gate team, Rodney, Ronon, and Lt. Angela Kelly. Of course, Lt. Kelly had been pregnant at the time she went on the mission, and she had been the only other person to touch the cube. Suddenly all the pieces fell into place, and Jennifer realized what must have happened. Unfortunately, it meant that John was going to be on his own for this pregnancy. Still, at least he had his team to support him.

"No not like that!" Rodney almost shouted, "you're going to stab him with the pin. Here, let me show you again." He grabbed the decorated Athosian pin and deftly attached it to Torren's diaper. John wondered how Rodney could do this so easily, when it completely escaped him."I don't see why we have to use these stupid Athosian diapers anyway. What's wrong with using disposables?""You're joking, right? Have you ever tried asking Colonel Caldwell to bring two month's supplies of diapers on the Daedalus, never mind clothes, lotions and all the other things Torren needs?""I take it he said no?" John asked."And the rest. He gave Teyla and me a lecture on why there isn't enough space to bring unnecessary luxuries. So it's the Athosian diapers or nothing I'm afraid."John sighed and rubbed his aching back with his left hand. "You need a break?" Rodney asked, a concerned look on his face."I wouldn't mind sitting down for a bit. Why don't we go over to the commissary and get some food?""You're always hungry these days, are you sure you aren't having twins?" Rodney teased. "Look we can do this later, I'll get Torren dressed and give him back to his mum."

John found a quiet table while Rodney went off to get food. The serving staff were always more generous with supplies of chocolate cake when they knew it was for Col. Sheppard. Rodney dumped the trays down on the table and sat down next to John. He passed over the cakes, keeping one for himself."You know, it was always a lot more fun to steal them off your plate," John laughed."I'm sure you will get plenty of chances after the baby is born." Rodney replied with a smile."It can't be long to go now. Have you got everything organised?""Pretty much. Teyla has a lot of stuff that Torren has outgrown, and Ronon and Kanaan are building the crib. Actually that reminds me, there is something I want you to do." John said, in a hesitant tone."What, besides showing you how to put on a diaper? I can't wait." Rodney reached out and picked up his glass of water."I want you to be my birth partner."Rodney almost choked on his drink, spitting water out across the table."You what?" he asked."You know, birth partner. I want you to be there when I have the baby?" there was a note of pleading in his voice."Oh no, not again, why does this always happen to me?" Rodney moaned. "It's bad enough I had to deliver Torren, but now you want me to be there for your birth too!""It's because you delivered Torren that I want you there. You've been through this before. Besides, the doctors will be doing all the real work.""Yes, but I really freaked out when Torren was born, and you know how I am about blood. I'll probably faint.""Rodney, please, this means a lot to me." John looked across the table at Rodney with a wide eyed puppy dog expression."Oh all right, " Rodney agreed reluctantly, "I'll do it."

John woke up early, with a cramp in his stomach. It lasted a couple of minutes and then went away. Later in the morning the cramp came back. With a sense of panic, John realised it was a contraction. He fumbled for his communicator, and called Rodney."Rodney. The baby's coming. Now.""Oh god." Rodney sounded as panicked as John. "Um, how close are the contractions?""I don't know, half an hour?" John replied.Rodney sighed with relief."It's ok then, we've got time. I'll come and walk you down to the infirmary."

By the time they arrived, Dr Keller was ready to perform a caesarean. She sent Rodney to get a mask and scrubs, noting the pale expression on his face. One of the nurses gave John an epidural injection, so he would not feel anything, and they set up a screen so he would not be able to see the operation. John tried to relax but he was feeling nervous about what was about to happen. This was the first ever operation of it's kind, so he knew there was a risk that it could go wrong. Rodney appeared at his side, looking just as nervous as John. "Hey buddy, you ok?" he asked."Sure, never been better." John replied. "Rodney, if I ask you something, will you promise not to laugh?""OK." Rodney replied, curious."Would you mind, er," John paused, took a deep breath, and then finally found the courage to say what was on his mind," that is to say, would you hold my hand?" a blush spread across his face, staring at the tips of his ears and finishing with his cheeks.At first, Rodney looked as embarrassed as John, but then he slowly reached out his hand, and interlaced his fingers with John's, squeezing hard.

The operation seemed to last forever, but finally they heard a startled cry, and then a nurse passed Rodney a tiny baby wrapped up in a blanket. "John, it's a girl" said Dr Keller.Rodney looked down at the tiny baby in his arms."Ohmygod, she's perfect." he said, a silly smile on his face. "Here, John, would you like to hold your daughter?"John took the baby, and looked down at her tiny face with an awestruck expression. Hesitantly he reached out a finger, and instinctively the baby grabbed it."Do you have a name for her yet?" asked Jennifer."Actually I do," John replied, "Let me introduce you to Meredith, Angela Sheppard."

The End, for now?…………………………..


End file.
